David Strickland told The Detroit News that EDRs are "essential" for the safety of drivers

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is siding strongly with the implementation of event data recorders (EDRs) in all vehicles built after 2014, but others are still worried about the privacy of drivers.

NHTSA Administrator David Strickland told The Detroit News that EDRs are "essential" for the safety of drivers, and that he opposed the idea of having a switch that would turn the black boxes off.

"The EDR information tells us so much about what's going on with a vehicle," said Strickland. "[It will] allow us to figure out what went wrong so we can fix it or we can ask the manufacturers to fix it."

EDRs, or black boxes, collect driver data such as speed, use of a seatbelt, whether brakes were applied, etc. before and after a vehicle crash. The idea behind them is to deploy better safety measures for vehicles as well as better overall vehicle design.

While EDRs could be helpful in the case of an auto accident, some believe that driver privacy is at stake. For instance, auto insurance company AAA voiced concerns about privacy recently.

"Congress needs to ensure motorist rights are protected by passing legislation that prohibits access to data without permission from the owner or from a court order, unless the data is used for research purposes and cannot be tracked to a single vehicle," said Robert Darbelnet, president and CEO of AAA.

Strickland responded to such claims, saying the EDRs "don't track people" and "don't record (at all times)."

Earlier this month, the White House Office of Management Budget finally completed its review of the NHTSA's EDR proposal to boost the number of new vehicles with EDRs from 91.6 percent today to 100 percent of light-duty cars and trucks. The White House delayed its review for over a year.

Some automakers already place EDRs in all of their vehicles, such as Ford, General Motors Mazda and Toyota.